I want to run PHP on my computer, mostly just so I can test it and learn it in a hands-on way. I’m not planning on turning my computer into a server; I just need the practice so I can pursue web development as a career.

I am trying to use libcurl with PHP on a Windows and I would like to spare myself the trouble of going through the whole install of everything plus libcurl. Is there some package somewhere that is like XAMPP except that it also contains libcurl capabilities or do I have to do the hard work and learn how to do it all myself?

I will be getting my own dedicated server soon and while I have a functional knowledge of the concepts of Linux, I don’t know everything. Will my server be reasonably secure if I am sure to keep everything updated and patched (assume there are no PHP scripts vulnerable to SQL injection etc.)

How to develop a forum for a web page using HTML, CSS, Javascript and PHP together with Apache?
Every time a particular user post his views (text etc), it should appear in the same page together user’s username.
Give me some sample examples.
Please let me know some references regarding these stuff.
Regards.